


the heavenly angel wing

by mekkaimeteor



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Babylon Rogues - Freeform, Extreme slow burn, M/M, Slow Burn, jet is GAY
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:16:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23228479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mekkaimeteor/pseuds/mekkaimeteor
Summary: Somehow pulled along into saving the world with Sonic, Jet has to face all his ancestor's sins, and, of course, his own.In which Jet realises he's gay and matures along the way!
Relationships: Jet the Hawk & Sonic the Hedgehog, Jet the Hawk/Sonic the Hedgehog
Comments: 8
Kudos: 39





	the heavenly angel wing

**Author's Note:**

> Aquatic Time
> 
> 1:05 ───|────── 3:23
> 
> |◁ II ▷|

"It's been a while since I've raced," Jet says aloud, fingers strumming on a desk. He slumps over the desk entirely, letting loose a large yawn. "No treasure to find either."

It's been quiet. Almost too quiet. Looting nearly every hidden artifact and ancient treasure in every corner of the world means that the last few treasures have become increasingly difficult to find. ("And hard!" Storm had said after Jet complained, earning a hefty thwack from Wave).

The buzz of the ship's propellers and motors, and the consistent up and down of the ship makes it all too clear that they're on the road to nothing. The very long road to nothing. Nothing at all. Everything boring. Nothing exciting.

Speaking of exciting... his thoughts drift back to extreme gear racing - the thrill of the moment, the nerves before a race, and finally, the wind. The wind was what propelled him this far, and what's still pushing him, and what he's still seeking.

He remembers Sonic. The hedgehog that managed to catch up to him; Sonic seemed to know the wind almost as well as he did. Both of them shared that innate feeling of moving, moving so fast you can't focus on anything other than-

He cuts himself off. Empathizing with Sonic? As if. The leader of the Babylon Rogues has better things to do than reminisce on rivals from the past. Rivals that also happened to instill some sort of yearning for more competition and fascination in his stomach. Jet groans. Someone should really stop him from thinking.

As if on cue, Wave bounds into the room, ear-splittingly ecstatic. She thrusts a sheet of paper in front of Jet's face, his beak nearly piercing it. "Look!" she encourages.

"This had better be good," he grumbles, snatching the sheet from her hands. He scans the lines quickly, eyes raising.

"So?" Wave says, a hand on her hip.

"So?" he echoes.

She face-palms. "They found more Babylon treasure! It's just inside a temple they discovered, but nobody can get in." She smirks. "None of them are master thieves, though."

Jet rubs his chin thoughtfully. "And is it useful Babylon treasure? I don't want another magic carpet."

Wave lifts her head up and to the side indignantly. "That magic carpet was useful. Apparently it was our ancestor's secret to their galactic empire."

"The carpet?"

"No, you doofus! The technology. There have already been a few tried swipes at it, but no one's got it yet."

Jet shrugs. "Well if people want it, it must be pretty valuable. We don't have anything better to do, so may as well."

Wave immediately brightens up. "That's what I was waiting to hear! Now listen up, because I've analysed every aspect of the place and I need to tell you about all the booby traps..."

While Wave natters on about the layout of the temple and their strategy to break past all the guards, Jet daydreams. It was a break, definitely, but it still wasn't enough. Stealing treasure and turning it over in his hands had done the trick before - what had changed?

Maybe he got too used to adventures and grand races. After all, you don't see a genie that tries to kill you while you race alongside your rival everyday.

Jet scowls. It always circles back to him.

"Are you even listening to me?" Wave's annoyed voice brings him back to reality, and Jet sighs.

"How about you go tell Storm what to do," he says dismissively. "I'll read up on that temple in a minute."

Wave frowns. "Something on your mind?"

Well, may as well tell her now. He opens a built in drawer to his desk, pulls out a golden ring, and starts twirling it around his finger. He gazes up at the portrait of one of his ancestor's - one that bears a striking resemblance to him.

"This doesn't feel like enough," he admits, purposely staring up at the painting instead of Wave to avoid whatever judgmental emotion she showed. "Nothing feels like it's enough."

He hears her sigh. "What is, then? Do you want to go bigger? Settle down? What are you even looking for, Jet?"

Well, he thinks angrily. He knows that he's looking for the wind. What's the "wind" though, other than the air that rushes through his feathers and makes all this worth it? He doesn't know.

He tells her so. Wave sighs again, shakes her head, then sits on the brown desk. "You've got responsibilities, Jet." She voices the thing he was dreading her to say out loud. "Sometimes you have to do things you don't like. You just have to suck it up. It's a part of life."

He scowls. "Do we have to do this?"

Wave stares at him incredulously. "You're saying we give up being Babylon Rogues?"

"No," Jet says. "Ugh, I don't know. Let's just steal that stupid artifact and go back to sightseeing."

Wave shakes her head, discontent with his answer. "Well you better figure it out soon because you're the leader. You can't just give it up now." Wave hops off the table and turns to leave, but then pauses at the door. "And we're here to help you. If you need anything, I'm in the engine room."

Big help that was. The only thing that's apparent to Jet is how unclear everything was. This was what he wanted, wasn't it? Why didn't he want this now? What did he want now?

He groans. And why did no one tell him that you could have an existential crisis at the ripe age of 14?

\---

The blimp landing very much feels like being stuck inside of a bouncy castle - a bouncy castle that had been flung 1000 feet into the air and burst by a jet plane. Basically, it's rough.

Jet stumbles, slamming his hands on the desk in an attempt to regain balance. No good; the blimp swings to the side, nearly throwing Jet off balance and causing the picture of one of his ancestors to fall. Luckily, Jet's hover-boarding skills come into use, and he uprights himself, scowling at no object in particular.

After one final, large shake of the blimp, all shaking subsides, and Jet is met with a particularly bad headache.

Wave ambles into the room, Storm close behind. "Ready to go?"

"No!" Jet bursts. "Your driving was awful!"

Wave looks like she's going to roll her eyes. "There was a lot of turbulence."

"This close to the ground?!" Jet's voice gets higher and higher with every word, his voice breaking with the last.

Wave shrugs, but looks amused. "Yes, it seemed there was some sort of powerful energy affecting the balance of the ship. I'll need to do more research to understand it, though."

Jet frowns. "What's so funny?"

Wave turns her head to the side and covers her mouth with a gloved hand. "Nothing."

"You're growing up, Boss!" Storm exclaims.

"What?"

"Your voice, Jet," Wave prompts.

"It's the same...?"

"It's even squeakier than usual." Storm says, Wave nodding in agreement.

Jet goes quiet for a while. Wave brings her hand down, peering at him to gauge his expression and Storm pulls his entire body forward, balancing on the tips of his toes to do the same.

"Shut up!" Jet squeaks, face an impressive shade of red, causing Wave and Storm to scurry out.

Once they leave, he carefully picks up the painting of his ancestor and reaches up, hanging it back in place. He sighs, grabs his Extreme Gear, then begrudgingly rides it outside.

\---

  
The plan is simple. Speed past whatever archaeologists are still lurking in the area, unlock the temple door with Storm's brute force (okay - more like *knock down* the temple wall), remove and disable all of the ancient technology guarding the temple with Wave's knowledge of technology, and grab the ancient artefact, whatever it is. The final task belongs to Jet.

The first part is easy enough. The fact that the temple was hidden away in the crevices of the mountain valleys and that the surrounding land was uneven enough to hide their blimp was a blessing from the Gods. Water streams twist through the spine of the valley, and the Babylon Rogues follow the path, their boards occasionally skidding on water. Jet watches Storm eyeing the patches of flowers dotted around the streams, rolling his eyes when the grey giant picks one.

"We're here to steal, not to go flower picking." Wave chides, hands on her hips.

Storm rubs the stem of the flower between his fingers, looking back and forth between Wave and Jet. "Sorry Boss. It's just so pretty, and we never stick around to just enjoy things."

"Stop whining," Wave says before Jet can respond. "We're nearly there."

They curve and dart between trees, generally following the direction of the water. Along the way, they duck into a cave, keeping low until they emerge into the other side, and Jet briefly shields his eyes from the sun.

"We're here, Jet."

The temple reminds Jet of Splash Canyon, what with the waterfalls and rivers as a backdrop to the temple. Several Babylonian symbols engraved into the stone temple glisten with what appears to be ice. Jet taps a few, and raises a brow at the realization that the symbols are filled with crystals. A few birds chirp here and there, but otherwise, the terrain is quiet.

Wave and Storm both glance at Jet, equally as confused over the lack of archaeologists.

"Well?" Jet huffs. "What are you waiting for?"

Storm cracks his knuckles and sucks in a large breath. Both Jet and Wave take a step back as Storm swings his arms and pummels the large sealed entrance, leaving behind a crumbled mess and a cloud of dust.

Wordlessly, they hover through the temple, glancing around. Jet covers his beak from the dust inside the temple as well as the dust from outside, holding in a sneeze. The temple looks like every other temple Jet has ever been in. Same muddy brown design, same ancient writing that Jet can't decipher but Wave can, and the same twisting maze-like design. Jet swears every temple architect must have followed the same instructions for building a temple, namely the obvious instruction: include a maze.

Wave assumes the lead of the group; the farther they move from the broken down entrance, the darker the temple becomes. Wave taps the orb on her necklace and it glows, lighting their surroundings and revealing holes in the ground and other potential traps. She surveys the surroundings, and flips her hair over her shoulder. "From my calculations and what I've read from the research already done, the control room should be this way."

"A control room in this run down place?" Jet smirks. "It probably won't work."

"This is just the outward appearance of the temple," Wave explains. "It's designed this way to deceive outsiders into thinking it's a normal place."

Jet shrugs, following Wave, then stops. "Why did we knock the door down if this place is so technologically advanced, then?"

"It's quicker than working out the code. The research paper I pirated didn't include the password."

They turn around a corner, before finding a looming, musty door challenging them.

"Storm." Jet says, and Storm obediently punches a hole in the door, letting the rest of the structure crumble around it.

The Babylon Rogues hop back onto their Extreme Gear, and glide over the broken door. Jet glances around from side to side, not noticing Wave had stopped to look at a control panel, nearly crashing into her.

"Hey! What gives?" Jet complains. He follows her fixated gaze and eyes the control panel. "So this thing is broken. What now?"

"Don't give up already," Wave shakes her head, tapping the symbols on the panel despite no noticeable response. "I'm switching this thing on."

Jet opens his beak to retort but is stopped short by the whirring of the control panel, and a bright, clinical blue light. He shields his eyes from the onslaught, squinting to survey his transformed surroundings.

Not bad. What had been a boring, muddy temple had now become a high-tech, dazzlingly white control room. Blue alien light illuminates all the control panels and screens, putting Wave's tiny orb light thing to shame. Speaking of the control panels, strange symbols appear on them, and Jet can only wonder what they mean.

Or ask Wave. No point in letting her brag about it though; he didn't need to know.

"Hm..." A sound of discontent leaves Wave, and Jet turns his attention back to whatever she was doing.

"What is it?" He hops off his hover-board, trying to see what she was doing over her shoulder.

Wave purses her beak. "Something isn't right. It's almost like..."

"Uh, Boss?" Storm speaks up. "There's muddy footprints here."

Jet groans. "So we have to play detective?"

"Someone's been here already, Jet," Wave taps frantically at the control panel. "And taken everything."

Brilliant, let's go home, is what Jet wants to say but a) there is no 'home' and b) both his comrades are expecting him to take leadership.

"Okay," he says slowly. "Wave, stay here and try to find more information. Storm and I'll look around the area."

"Aye aye, Boss!" Storm salutes, while Wave just nods.

"Let's go," Jet boards his Extreme Gear quickly, and boosts off to investigate the area, Storm in tow. He looks back and forth, but the temple in all its advanced glory starts to look just as repetitive as before.

"Boss," Storm stumbles behind him. "Look!"

Jet's head snaps to the right, and he sees a hint of movement down a hallway.

"Aha," he smirks. "So the thief's still here."

He twists his board to the side, jerking into the pristine white hallway. Storm yells, and curves around, trying to keep up.

_"Jet"_ , Wave's voice comes in from a transceiver built into Jet's gloves. _"Can you hear me?"_

"Yeah." Jet prompts his board to jump over what looked like thick blue circuitry.

_"I'll open all the doors in your way. I can see you on the security system here."_

"Can't you see who we're chasing?" Jet barks into the transceiver. "Maybe lock them in?"

_"Sorry, they're going too fast."_ Wave pauses and Jet's heart beats twice in a moment that should've been one. _"I'll try to predict their movements."_

He spirals through hallways, largely empty rooms and doors, trying to speed up but also trying not to lose Storm. He briefly glances behind, catching an eyeful of Storm losing control of his Extreme Board and nearly crashing into the sides of the room.

He has to give him some credit, though. Not many can come this close to catching up with him.

_"You're closing in, Jet."_

Jet puts on his goggles in preparation.

_"Just a little closer..."_

Without warning, the temple door opens, and Jet and Storm are met with sunshine, a breath of fresh air, and also an imminent fall.

They drop.

"Seriously?" Jet screams. "I don't even have --!"

Can't finish his sentence, and he most certainly can't hear Wave's response, whatever excuse she came up with, over the deafening serenity of water as he and Storm crashed into it, tumbling, falling, tumbling, and falling...

He's pulled out by a gloved hand.

"Hey, close call! You're lucky I'm here."

Jet doesn't even need to look up. He just breathlessly splutters on the floor, coughing. "Yeah, thanks for saving my life. Do you want a kiss and fries with that?"

Storm chucks both hover-boards onto the muddy ground. "I didn't know you were gay, Boss."

Jet splutters again, but this time, his lungs had nothing to do with it. "Shut it. It was a joke. Anyway, what do you want, Sonic the hedgehog?"

Sonic grins at Jet, offering a hand to help him stand up, but Jet slaps it away. "A sincere thank you, but I don't think that'll ever come from you. What's up?"

"We came here to... retrieve treasure." Jet says, slowly getting up on one knee, then standing up completely. "You?"

"Huh," Sonic places a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "So did Eggman."

"What?" Jet says.

_"What?"_ Wave says.

"What?" Sonic shrugs, palms facing outwards. "Don't worry, though, we'll have this cleaned up in no time."

Jet gives a disbelieving huff, jumping onto his board. “I’m guessing you’re talking about you and your friends.”

Sonic gives him a thumbs up. “Yep.”

“Aha,” Jet places his hands on his hips, beginning to smirk. “And Sonic T Hedgehog apparently doesn’t believe in helping out his friends anymore. He just likes to stand around.”

“I literally saved your life.”

“You’re just--”

_“Jet!”_ Wave’s agitated voice made both Jet and Storm jump, but Sonic just looks at Jet, amused. _“Go after Eggman!”_

“Ugh, yeah, I forgot about that.” Jet readies himself on his hover-board and glances around his surroundings to gain his bearings again. He swiftly shakes himself of any remaining water on his feathers, and looks at Sonic in the corner of his eye. “Race you there!”

With a sharp foot tap on his board, he zooms off, hearing a “hey!” erupt from Sonic and a “whuh- Boss!” from Storm. Jet drifts to the side, dodging trees. He zigzags through the lush landscape, vaguely remembering that his goggles are still on, and wonders where the waterfall he landed in came from in the first place.

Weirdly abrupt. Was there a waterfall underneath the temple itself?

_“I’m getting strange signals up ahead,”_ Wave’s voice is distant against the roaring wind. _“Be careful.”_

“Come on,” Jet grins, shrugging Wave off confidently. “Whatever it is, it won’t be a match for me!”

A zap of blue electricity, and Sonic bounds next to him, his feet a blur of red. “Seriously? This is hardly fair.”

“Not my fault you didn’t bring a board,” Jet sulks, but averts his face to hide his astonishment at Sonic’s running. No way was Sonic actually able to run this fast. He must have had an Advantage Gear on, no way…

Sonic launches ahead of Jet, a blast of wind erupting behind him. He looks back at Jet teasingly, sprinting in the same form as an athlete.

“B-Boss!” Storm’s voice comes from behind him, and Jet flinches as he sees entire trees being knocked down.

“H-Hey! What are you doing--!” Jet squeaks, just barely sliding out of the way of a falling tree, only to see Storm knocking the trees out of the way himself.

“I couldn’t catch up so I had to,” Storm looks pensive. “They were in my way!”

“Stop knocking them down!” Jet panics, jumping out of the way. “You’re in my way! I’m barely catching up to him!”

_“Jet, focus on getting the treasure, not on your petty race!”_ Wave yells, but is still barely audible to Jet. _“It’s important!”_

Jet regains his full balance on his board, initiating a short boost of energy. Storm loses his footing on the board from the blast of energy released from Jet’s board, crashing into a tree.

“Well, rest in peace,” Jet murmurs, focusing on getting to Sonic as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the hedgehog was nowhere to be seen. Still following the water trail, he picks up speed, ducking slightly to become more aerodynamic.

After reaching a large clearing, he halts to a stop, gritting his teeth.

_“Jet, to your left,”_ Wave speaks up again, frantic tapping noises in the background. _“The temple’s tracked something - I don’t know what - but it’s found something.”_

“Helpful," he remarks snarkily. He moves through more trees, slapping tree branches out of his way as he tries to reach what the temple tracked. Jet sighs. This is probably all just a wild goose chase. And, Sonic shows up out of nowhere, acts all casual about it, and he even outraces him. On foot. Jet starts grinding his teeth, agitated.

And yet, something in Jet was glad that Sonic was there.

"Okay," Jet says aloud. "Let's prove to him we're better."

He hovers through, coming across a massive lake. And on the other side of the lake he spots a massive robot, Sonic, a yellow fox in a plane, and the other red guy that Storm used to argue with punching the aforementioned robot.

"Finally, something interesting!" Jet skids through the water, a wave of aqua splashing behind him.

"No matter," he hears Doctor Eggman's confident voice. "I've got all I wanted, here." Jet glances up at the giant egg carrier robot, and notices Eggman sitting atop it, holding up a cube that looked almost exactly like the Babylon key Jet had before.

"In your dreams, Eggman!"

Jet takes a moment to look back at Sonic as the yellow fox hops out of his plane and nods at Sonic. Despite the fact that Jet was still meters away, he ducks from the sheer force of the wind as he watches the fox grab Sonic and frantically spin him before launching him against the robot. The fox boy hops into his plane, typing something into the plane that Jet couldn't see from his angle. Sonic ascends the robot by carving his quills into it as he spin-dashes, and eventually cracks the glass container that sealed and protected Eggman within the robot.

Despite Sonic's efforts, the cube begins to glow. Eggman cups it in his hands, defiant. "Too slow, Sonic!" He sneers.

_"Jet?"_ Wave pipes up, and Jet finally pulls his eyes away from the sight.

"What?" He hisses.

_"Have you got the-"_

"No!" The yellow fox yells as the cube grows ever brighter.

_"Jet?"_ Wave tries again.

Jet ignores her, and can only focus on Sonic's response, as the blue hedgehog emits the 7 Chaos Emeralds. He floats, the emeralds circling around him as they release an unearthly glow and the Chaos energy envelopes the hedgehog, cloaking him in a golden hue and a light explodes, briefly blinding Jet. When Jet opens his eyes again, he sees Sonic briefly glancing at him, eyes now an entrancing red, and Jet's breath is suddenly caught in his throat.

"Give it up." Sonic commands Eggman, bursts of spiral energy leaking from his hands.

Eggman laughs. "I don't think so."

The cube expands, floating out of Eggman's reach, and Sonic tries to seize it, hands clasping around it, but he flicks his arm back, a fizzing noise erupting from the cube. Sonic grits his teeth. "What the--?"

"Witness this, hedgehog!" Eggman erupts with laughter again, arms outstretched. Jet readies himself on his board, waiting. "The Babylon galactic empire will be mine! With this device, I'll finally have the power I need to build Eggmanland!"

The red echidna continues to punch the base of the robot, but to no avail. "You're mad!" He yells, knuckles grinding against the robot. The robot slumps on its side, but Eggman continues to watch the cube, undeterred.

Jet watches Sonic's yellow friend's face turn dark and fearful. "Sonic!" The fox yells. "It's attracted to the power of the emeralds! You've got to get away!"

Sonic clenches his fists, golden quills raising. "I'm not running away!" He boosts into the cube, a spherical blue force-field materializing around it, and Sonic pushes harder against it, holding out his hand, getting closer, and closer to grabbing it despite the force-field desperately pushing his body further and further away...

The Chaos Emeralds spark like an exploding light-bulb, and something in Jet's head clicks and tells him to get Sonic the _hell_ away from that thing.

Jet launches himself into Sonic, causing the hedgehog to yelp in surprise, and Eggman to laugh with glee. Jet and Sonic tumble over each other, Sonic's golden fur flickering like a failing light-bulb.

Sonic's hand shoves Jet's face out of the way, and he watches the mystical cube glow brighter. "No!"

The Chaos Emeralds eject from Sonic's body, and circle around the cube, seeming as though the light was being sucked out of them and into the vortex that was the cube. Sonic tries to sit up, but simply collapses back down. Jet stumbles up, throwing his Extreme Gear at the force-field, but it bounces back, useless. He snaps his head to watch the echidna try to penetrate the ever-growing force-field, but he too gets knocked back.

"Fox!" Jet yells. "Do something!"

The yellow kitsune holds up a small makeshift computer with dangling circuitry, but then his face drops. "It's... It's too much! It's absorbing everything - chaos energy, electrical, gravitational-"

He's cut off by a low but loud thrumming noise, and all of them gasp for air; Jet pulls himself up to his feet, stumbling towards the force-field, sluggishly turning his hover-board on, slowly reaching his hand towards the cube, his hand moving through the force-field. Just a little more, and then he can...

Someone grabs his leg and he misses, grabbing a Chaos Emerald instead. It all happens in flashes of white light, the world around him spluttering as though the world was switching on and off, and he sees everything, sideways, upside down, then Wave's faint voice, and even though Jet feels feverish, one thing echoes in his mind over and over - the one clear thought in his muddied mind in voice that doesn't belong to him.

_Collect all the Chaos Emeralds._

Jet passes out.

**Author's Note:**

> next chapter: Jet wakes up in a mysterious jungle with Sonic? To get out, they have to seek out another Chaos Emerald... They can't establish outside connection with anyone.
> 
> \---
> 
> i'm going to be in isolation for like... 5 months so i'm sorry if i don't update this fic any time soon :pensive:  
> this is SUPER slow burn and expect this fic to be a monster
> 
> kudos + comments are super appreciated !!


End file.
